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The US President does not usually take advice, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently